ImpEE

THE

PROJECT

EDUCATION
ENGINEERING
IMPROVING
Recycling of Plastics
 Plastic waste in the UK
• 3 million tonnes of waste
plastic are produced a year in
the UK.
• 1 tonne = 20,000 plastic bottles
• 7% of this is recycled at present
(2005)
• An estimated 9.2 billion plastic
bottles are disposed of each
year
• 200,000 tonnes of plastic
rubbish is being sent 8,000 miles
to China each year for recycling.
 Things to think about...
•The basic raw materials for plastic
are petroleum and/or natural gas.

•Although plastics only consume

around 4% of the world’s oil,
supplies are becoming depleted.

•Many plastic products are

reaching the end of their lifecycle,
forming non-biodegradable
mountains of waste plastic.

• 11% of household waste is plastic,

40% of which is plastic bottles
 Biologically produced plastics
Energy consumption of Biological • PHA , PHB and PLA are
versus Crude Oil derived plastics biologically produced.
150
• Processing energy is
relatively high.
Fossil Fuel Requirement
[MJ/kg of plastic]

100
• More fossil fuel energy is used
in their production than for
50 both Polyethylene and PET.

• So renewable plastics are not

0 necessarily as
PLA
PHA

PHB

PE

Nylon
PET

environmentally friendly as
they first appear.
Energy Raw Material
Assessing embodied
Assessing energy
embodied and and
energy CO2CO2
of plastics
The energy input during manufacturing is not calculated via
thermodynamics because:
• Industrial processes have varying efficiencies ranging from a few % to
about 50%
• The scrap-fraction ranges from a few % to 80% or more
• Some part of the energy to heat, light and maintain the plant must be
included
• In any new enterprise there is an energy “mortgage” to be paid – the
energy it cost to build the plant
Instead it is calculated by input-output analysis

Production
Energy in (MJ/hour) Products out (n/hour)
plant

Energy/product = Energy in/Products out

EXAMPLE: primary production of PET bottles

Oil derivatives
(with embodied energy)
PET PET granules Energy/kg PET =
Total plant energy production (with aggregated total energy in
(inc. transport, heat, light…)
plant
embodied energy) ∑ kg of PET out
Energy mortgage

Bottle
blow- Total plant energy
molding (inc. transport, heat, light…)

plant Energy mortgage

Energy/bottle =
total energy in
∑ number of bottles out
 Life-Cycle Analysis
• In addition to the energy
embodied in the plastic during
production and manufacturing,
products also require energy
during use and disposal.
• An analysis that considers this
whole process is referred to as
life-cycle analysis.
• The next slide shows the results
of such an analysis of a plastic
drink container.
Energy breakdown for PE bottle
 Eco-impact per unit of function
Function: contain 1 litre of fluid
Glass PE PET Alu Steel

Container
Type
Mass The winner is
[g]
325 38 25 20 45 steel.
The losers are
Mass/volume glass and
[g/litre]
433 38 62 45 102 aluminium.

Energy/Mass
[MJ/kg]
14 80 84 200 23
Energy/Volume
[MJ/litre]
8.2 3.2 5.4 9.0 2.4
Recycling changes the picture a little – but not simple
Things to think about
• Plastics are not necessarily the waste and
energy culprits that some people think they
are. Plastics can be very energy efficient.
• It takes less energy to manufacture a plastic
ketchup bottle than a glass ketchup bottle.
And since plastics are lightweight, it takes
less energy to transport a truckload of plastic
ketchup bottles than a truckload of glass
ketchup bottles.
• Up to 40% less fuel is used to transport
drinks in plastic bottles compared to glass
bottles
 Why Recycle?
• In landfill, both
synthetic and naturally
occurring polymers
don’t get the necessary
exposure to UV and
microbes to degrade.

• Here they are taking Photo of tip.

up space and none of

the energy put into
making them is being
reclaimed.
 Why Recycle?
• Reclaiming the energy stored in the polymers
can be done through incineration, but this can
cause environmental damage by release of toxic
gases into the atmosphere.
• Recycling is a viable alternative in getting back
some of this energy in the case of some
polymers.
• As petroleum prices increase it is becoming more
financially viable to recycle polymers rather than
produce them from raw materials.
Recycling of polymers: the reality
In-house scrap (generated at the source of production) is near-100% recycled
already.
Recycling of used plastics (here PET bottles): few plastic recycling plants make a
profit. Many have closed.
Why, if recycling is energy-efficient? And is it?
•Collection is time-intensive, so expensive
•Sorting of mixed plastic waste is difficult – contamination
is inevitable.
•Removing labels, print, all but impossible at 100% success
rate
•Contamination of any sort compromises re-use in “hi-tech”
applications (a carbonated water bottle is a pressure
vessel – a failure is unacceptable to the supermarkets that
sell them)
The consequence: most plastic (apart from in-house) is reused in lower-grade applications
•PET: cheap carpets, fleeces
•PE and PP: block board, park benches
Problems with recycling plastics

• PET and PVC have many problems with cross

contamination as the two polymers appear very
similar to the naked eye and share the same
specific gravity so cannot be separated by
conventional float-sink techniques used in the
plastic recycling industry.
• The correct separation of plastics is extremely
important. Just one PVC bottle in a batch of 10,000
PET bottles can ruin the entire melt!
Energy (and use) audit of recycling of PET

Used plastic bottles Polymer

(inc. collection transport energy) sorting,
cleaning, Recycled PET granules
Total plant energy (with aggregated embodied energy
(inc. transport, heat, light…) dicing, -- and contaminates)
packaging
Energy mortgage
plant

Plant for use of Total plant energy

recycled PET (inc. transport, heat, light…)

Energy mortgage

Energy per kg of fleece =

total energy in
∑kg ofkgfleece out
of fleece out
Energies and prices of virgin and recycled plastics

Embodied energy, Price*, Embodied energy, Price*,

Commodity
virgin material virgin material recycled material recycled
plastics
(MJ/kg) ($/kg) (MJ/kg) material ($/kg)
HDPE 77 - 85 1.9 – 2.0 ≈ 35 - 45 0.84 – 0.97
PP 75 - 83 1.8 – 1.85 ≈ 35 - 45 0.99 – 1.1
PET 79 - 88 2.0 – 2.1 ≈ 60 - 64 1.1 – 1.2
PS 96 - 105 1.5 – 1.6 ≈ 40 - 50 0.75 – 0.86
PVC 63 - 70 1.4 – 1.5 ≈ 35 - 40 0.77 – 0.99
*Spot prices, November 2005

The messages:
•Both the embodied energy and price of recycled plastics are about half that of
virgin material
•The lower price reflects the lower quality of the recycled material, limiting its use
•Because of this the contribution of recycling to current plastic consumption is
small
 Recycling of polymers: the reality
Because of the problems outlined on the previous slides, the
contribution of recycling to current plastic consumption is small.
Virgin Production Recycled Production
5

4
(millions of tonnes / year)
Plastic production

0
HDPE PP PET PS PVC
 Things to think about?
• Since most oil is
extracted to be
burned directly as
fuel, is it so wrong
to turn it into plastic
first, and then burn
it to recover the
energy?
 Things to think about

• China drives the global waste trade,

importing more than 3 million tonnes of
waste plastic a year.
• Western plastic companies are setting up in
China, but some of the poorest people are
employed to sort and recycle the plastic.
• Is it better to send rubbish to China to be
recycled than to put it in landfill in Britain?
How plastics are sorted
 How the recycling occurs
1. The recyclables can be collected from individual
homes or from collection points such as tips,
schools and supermarkets. After transport to the
recycling plant, plastics are hand sorted
according to their recycling code. Some materials
recovery facilities can mechanically sort different
plastic codes. Each plastic type is processed
separately.
 How the recycling occurs
2.The plastic is sliced into flakes and the flakes go
through a washing process.
3.The clean plastic flakes are melted together,
extruded through small holes, and chopped
into pellets.
 How the recycling occurs
4.The bags of recycled plastic pellets are taken to
factories where they are melted and made into
new products.
5.In the case of soft drink bottles the recycled
pellets are combined with virgin material fresh
from petroleum. These are then melted and
moulded into preforms.
 How the recycling occurs
6.The bottles are blown into another mould to
form the full size bottle this is often done at the
bottling plant where they are filled and sealed.
7.Once consumed they are delivered back to the
recycling plant after household recycling.
 Recycling Statistics

Where Recycled PET Ends Up

Fiber
15% 16% Strapping
Food/Beverage Containers
5% Non-Food containers
3% Film Sheet
4% Other

Other includes: Compounded

Fiber Resin (2%), Tolled (1%), Clean
Export (1%)
57%
A different viewpoint...
• It takes one day to
collect a kilo of thin
plastic bags from a tip
by hand
• For one kilo, the rag
picker typically earns
R1.5 in India
• Some cities in India
are banning the use of
thin plastic bags
 © University of Cambridge, 2005

This material was produced as a part of the

ImpEE Project at the University of Cambridge. It
may be reproduced, modified and used freely for
educational purposes.

ImpEE is based at the Department of Engineering at the

University of Cambridge and is funded by the CMI Institute.